Embodiments of the invention relate generally to methods for detecting polymers in industrial water systems. More particularly, it relates to a method of determining the concentration or availability of anionically-charged polymers in industrial water systems.
Anionically-charged polymers are used for preventing scaling or depositing in industrial water systems, such as a cooling system. The polymers may include polymers derived from unsaturated carboxylates and unsaturated sulphonates and their salts. However, the concentration of the polymers in the industrial water systems must be carefully monitored, because if too little scale-inhibiting polymer is employed, scaling may still occur; while if too much polymer is used, the treatment may not be cost effective. For each given system, there is an optimal concentration level or range that needs to be realized.
Conventional methods of estimating the concentration of the charged polymers employed as scale inhibitors in cooling water include fluorometric methods, turbidity methods, and calorimetric methods. These techniques suffer from a variety of limitations, and simpler, more effective methods of determining the concentration of scale-inhibiting charged polymers would be of substantial value. Thus, there is a need to provide improved systems and methods for measurement of the anionic polymers in aqueous media such as cooling water.